I’m reading Cryptonomicon for the fourth time now — yes, I know I should be reading something new instead, but I can’t just help myself — and enjoying it almost as much as the first time. (It’s particularly nice to reread it after having read Quicksilver and The Confusion, since I can then notice some cute references that I had entirely missed before; but that’s for the serious geeks cultists fans.) Here’s one excerpt that made me laugh, and that I think well captures Stephenson’s style, though I can’t vouch for its effects on you:
After they’ve been out to sea for a day, the captain (Commander Eden — the same poor son of a bitch who got the job of ramming his previous command into Norway) staggers out of his cabin, making use of every railing or other handhold that comes within flailing distance. He announces in a slurred voice that from here on out, according to orders from On High, anyone going abovedecks must wear black turtle necks, black gloves, and black ski masks underneath their other clothes. These articles are duly issued to the men. Shaftoe gets the skipper really pissed off by asking him three times whether he’s sure he has the order worded correctly. One of the reasons Shaftoe is so highly regarded by the enlisted men is that he knows how to ask these kinds of questions without technically violating the rules of military etiquette. The skipper, to his credit, doesn’t just pull rank and yell at him. He takes Shaftoe back to his cabin and shows him a khaki-covered Army manual, printed in black block letters:
TACTICAL NEGRO IMPERSONATION
VOLUME III: NEGROES OF THE CARIBBEAN
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